“Man, you’ve got to check this out, he’s unbelievable.” Sam bounced on his toes gleefully.

Tegan said, “You don’t even know this guy.”

“No, it’s cool, it’s cool. It’s what he does.”

Pollard shuffled past, gray in his uniform slacks.

“Hey, Pollard!”

He shuffled over.

Sam picked up his sack. It was full of a number of things: batteries, adapters, toys… anything small and strange. “You ready? Think you can handle a marathon?”

Pollard nodded mutely. His lips went in and out as he waited.

Sam held out a two pack of twelve volt Alkacell batteries. “How much?”

“$6.59”

A Sky Squadron RC plane.

“$19.99”

A coil of four-conductor intercom wire.

“$4.29”

Sam sped up, pulling stuff faster and faster out of his sack. 2 bell wireless doorchime — “24.99” 6V AC/DC power adapter — “18.99” dipole fm antenna — “4.29” 8 pack of hearing aid batteries — “6.99” in-ear stereo head–

Tegan yawned. “This is boring,” she said. “So he knows the price of everything. So what?”

Pollard honked sadly and shuffled away.

“Why’d you say that? Now he’s gonna sulk.”

“So what? Let him go help somebody else. I’m bored.”

Sam shushed her fiercely, but it was too late. Pollard started to wail. “Man, he doesn’t work here!”